Customer orientation

Modern marketers take the view that the customers are intelligent enough to know what they need, can recognize value for money when they see it, and will not buy again from the firm if they do not get value for money. This is the basis of the marketing

concept (Blythe, 2005).

Putting the customer at the center of all the organization’s activities is easier said than done. The marketing concept affects all areas of the business, from production (where the engineers and designers have to produce items that meet customers’ needs) through to after-sales services (where customer complaints need to be taken seriously). The marketing concept is hard to implement because, unlike the sales orientation approach, which seeks to change the mass of customers to fit the organization’s aims, the marketing concept seeks to change the organization’s aims to fit one or more specific groups of customers who have similar needs. This means that marketers often meet resistance from within their own organizations (Blythe, 2005).

In practice, the marketing concept means finding out the needs and wants of a particular group of customers, finding out what price they would be willing to pay, and fitting the organization’s activities towards meeting those needs and wants at the right price. These are the main responsibilities of the marketing director or marketing managers of a firm (Blythe, 2005).

At this point, it is useful to draw a distinction between customers and consumers. Customers are the people who buy the product; consumers are those who consume it. Customers could therefore be professional buyers who are purchasing supplies for a company, or possibly a parent buying toys for a child. The consumer might also be the customer, of course, but could equally be the recipient of a gift or the user of a service, 59

which is paid for by others. The consumer decision-making process follows the stages shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24 – Consumer decision-making

More information about this consumer decision-making model can be found in the book; ‘Essentials of Marketing’ by Jim Blyhte (2005).

Decision-making units

Industrial buyers differ from consumers in that they are (at least theoretically) more formalized in their buying behaviour (Blythe, 2005).

Organizational buyers are buying in order to meet the organization’s needs, but it should also be remembered that they have their personal needs. These might be a need for

prestige, a need for career security, for friendship and social needs, and other personal

factors such as the satisfaction of driving a hard bargain, or the buyer’s personality, attitudes and beliefs (Powers, 1991).


Regarding the organization’s needs, however, the chief considerations of most buyers appear to revolve around quality, delivery, service and price (Green, Robinson & Wind, 1968).

Industrial buying decisions are rarely made in isolation. Usually several people are involved in the process at different stages.

• Gatekeepers: such as secretaries and receptionists control the flow of information to the decision-makers. Often they will act as a barrier to salespeople, and see their role as being primarily to prevent interruptions to the decision-maker’s work pattern.

• Influencers: are those individuals who ’have the ear’ of the decision-makers. They could be people within the firm whom the decision-maker trusts, or they could be golf partners, spouses, or even children.

• Users: are those who will actually use the product. For example, if the organization is contemplating the purchase of a new computer system, the finance department and the IT department will clearly want to have some say in the decision.

• Deciders: are the ones who make the real decision. These are usually the hardest 60

to influence, since they are usually the more senior people in the decision-making unit and are surrounded by gatekeepers. They are also sometimes hard to identify. They are not necessarily buyers, but they do hold the real power in the buying decision.

• Buyers: are the ones given the task of actually going through the process of buying. The buyers may be given a very specific brief by the decider, and may have very little room to negotiate except on areas such as price and delivery schedules. Sometimes they are merely there to handle the mechanical aspects of getting tenders from possible suppliers.

Each of these people has an independent existence outside the organization; each will bring their own personal needs and aspirations to their role. In some cases this will be a job-related need (for example, career progression or the need to appear professional); in other cases the individual may have personal needs, such as a need to exercise power or the hedonic need to drive a hard bargain. The need to impress others within the firm can be extremely powerful (Blythe, 2005).

The concepts described in this paragraph provide understanding for the principles that play part when they make a shift from internal focus to external focus. It may help Company X to determine which type of typology they want to be and how they face the three described problems. When the department XX(GVA) and also Company X in total, ignore an innovation strategy there is a risk that disrupting technologies will replace Company X as organization. An other risk if innovation will not become a part of the strategy of Company X, may be that the department XX(GVA) is not relevant for Company X and the department will be shut down. The organization may become cumbersome and slow, which might be result in a repulsion of the entire Company X by the government.